Filth is not funny. Red Skelton insisted that humor was like medicine. When the comic uses filth, it pollutes the medicine and takes away its healing powers. He was right on track.
I have been listening to some old time radio programs and have been amazed at how funny these folks were without resorting to filthy material. Listen to folks like Abbott and Costello, Mel Blanc, Edgar Bergan and Charlie McCarthy, and others and you will see what I am talking about. You can listen for hours on end, laughing all the way, and not hear an off color joke. The best didn't stoop to the cheap and vulgar to get a laugh. It is sad some feel they must today.
Old time radio is a great source for ideas for skits, jokes, and fun. See how the masters did it way back when and learn from them. You can get all kinds of old time radio programs for next to nothing as much of it is in public domain now. I got several programs from a Canadian fellow (rschwarz9@shaw.ca) who collects them. You can get the entire collection of some old time radio shows on a single CD for under $5. They come in MP3 format, which means that you can play them on your computer, or, if you have an IPod or similar device, you can load them and take them with you. The amazing thing about this format is that you can fit 70 or more hours of programs on a single CD! That is a lot of laughs! Old time radio-- listen, laugh, and learn.
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